“It was one of the most dangerous hits I’ve seen in a while,” New York head coach Tortorella said. “Nothing needs to be said about what has to be done.”

The hit overshadowed Marian Gaborik snapping New York’s lengthy power-play drought with his overtime winner. The Rangers hadn’t scored a power-play goal in the seven games prior (a total of 15 opportunities) and had just one man-advantage goal since Christmas.

This was a statement victory for the Rangers as they claimed Eastern Conference dominance from the Bruins. With the win, New York opened up a nine point lead on Boston for top spot in the East, prompting Bruins coach Claude Julien to concede the Rangers were the team to beat.

“No doubt, right now they’re playing the best,” Julien said. “They’re playing like we did last year when we were playing well. Right now that’s the identity we’re looking for again.”

“I hate the Bruins. I hate them with a passion,” Boyle said prior to the Valentine’s day tilt against New York. “That’s how it’s supposed to be, I think, and that’s how it’s been for a while. Last year they won and congratulations to them, but it really made me upset. I was pretty angry about it.”

The B’s-Blueshirts rivalry has been quiet for a while — the two haven’t met in the postseason since 1973 — but it appears to have heated up again this season. After the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers both lost their captains (Sidney Crosby and Chris Pronger, respectively) many figured the road through the Eastern Conference would have to go through New York or Boston.

3) Choose the number of total goals you think will be scored in all five Hockey Day in America games.

4) Make sure to fill out your picks by Sunday, 12:00 PM ET.

The entrant that correctly predicts each winner and total number of goals scored will be named the MVP and featured on the NHL on NBC Sports Facebook page.

In case you need help making your picks, here are some from PHT’s Mike Halford and Jason Brough:

Pittsburgh at Buffalo

Halford: The Sabres were embarrassed 8-3 the last time they faced the Penguins, so there’s a revenge factor at play. There’s also the fatigue issue — Pittsburgh plays Philly on Saturday — so I’m going with Buffalo.

Brough: Don’t look now, but the Sabres are playing…not terrible. Buffalo wins in a squeaker.

San Jose at Detroit

Halford: I see no reason to pick against a team that’s won 21 straight at home. Detroit.

Brough: The Wings have been unbeatable at the Joe, but I’m going with the Sharks because there’s a small chance I could look like a genius and I’m used to looking dumb.

St. Louis at Chicago

Halford: These two have split the season series (1-1), but both games were at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. This one will be at the United Center, where the ‘Hawks are 19-6-4 this year. I’ll take Chicago.

Brough: Here’s my theory — the ‘Hawks will be so happy to get home after nine straight games away from the United Center that they’ll come out with a ton of positive energy. And if that doesn’t work, the Blues aren’t a great road team anyway. Chicago still wins.

Boston at Minnesota

Halford:The Wild were tops in the NHL on Dec. 10. Today, they’re in 21st. That has a lot to do with the fact they’ve gone 5-16-5 over the last 26 games. As such, I’m rolling with Boston.

Brough: How bad are the Wild? The Wild are so bad they lost at home to Columbus last week. Easy win for the B’s here.

New Jersey at Montreal

Halford: Have to like what Ilya Kovalchuk’s doing for the Devils right now. He’s ninth in league scoring (56 points) while playing almost 25 minutes a night, most among all NHL forwards. Riding the hot hand here, taking New Jersey.

Brough: This one’s a coin toss. So I’m going to toss a coin. And the coin has come up…Habs.

After getting plenty of time to look over the national TV schedule and taking a look at what we’ll have on future weekends on NBC, there’s a few days that stand out for us even before training camp has started. With the host of featured events that will be going on throughout the season, that helps make things easier to narrow down.

That said, we’re going to keep ourselves limited to just five games that we’ve got our interest piqued by the most.

1. November 25 – Boston Bruins vs. Detroit Red Wings, 1 p.m. ET

It’s the first of what is going to be an annual game on Black Friday. You spent the morning chasing bargains at the stores the day after Thanksgiving and you’ve still got a fantastic turkey hangover. What’s better to relax after a morning of fighting the crowds than settling in to watch the first NBC game of the year? Making it all the better is that it’s an original six match-up featuring the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins at home against the Detroit Red Wings.

You’ll get anything and everything you could ask for in one game. Great goaltending? Sure, Tim Thomas is the man in Boston. Tremendous offensive firepower? Yup, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg will be hoping to beat Thomas. Added to that, you’ll see two of the league’s best defensemen in Boston’s Zdeno Chara and 41 year-old future Hall Of Famer Nicklas Lidstrom for Detroit. Since you’ll be hurting for great sports to watch on Black Friday, getting this game as your afternoon headliner makes the day even better.

2. January 2 – Philadelphia Flyers vs. New York Rangers, 1 p.m. ET

Right now it’s inauspiciously listed as a regular afternoon game in Philadelphia, but at some point in the near future it’ll be announced as the 2012 Winter Classic from Citizens Bank Park in Philly. If you haven’t been thrilled by past Winter Classic games… What’s the matter with you? This time around, the Flyers get to host the event after playing in the 2010 Winter Classic in Boston. They’ll get to show off this summer’s pickups in Ilya Bryzgalov, Jaromir Jagr, Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, and Brayden Schenn to go along with Daniel Briere and Claude Giroux.

Having the Rangers make their first appearance in the Winter Classic means getting this summer’s top free agent pickup Brad Richards into the mix. Having him paired up with Marian Gaborik as well as Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky with superstar goalie Henrik Lundqvist in goal the Rangers have plenty of star power of their own. Perhaps the only other thing we’re anticipating more than the Winter Classic between these two rivals themselves is HBO’s 24/7 featuring both teams. Bryzgalov and his wild statements in Philly compared to Sean Avery and John Tortorella in New York? Sold.

Which side of drama would you like with your mid-January afternoon tilt? When last we saw the Penguins and Capitals on NBC in January, it was the 2011 Winter Classic from Heinz Field. That’s also the last time we saw Sidney Crosby on the main stage in a nationally televised game. We can only hope that we’ll get to highlight a Crosby-Alex Ovechkin matchup in this one.

If that’s not the sort of story line you’re interested in, how about a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference playoff sweep between the Flyers and Bruins? Two seasons ago the Flyers came back from down 3-0 in their series with the Bruins to win in seven games. The Bruins would use that crushing defeat to motivate them to humiliate the Flyers in a 4-0 sweep last season on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. With the Flyers being differently loaded and the Bruins still running a bruising team with Tim Thomas in goal out there, it’s easy to say it’ll be a rough and tumble game.

4. February 19 – Hockey Day In America

Hockey Day In America is once again going to be a huge day. With a broadcast doubleheader featuring three regional games to kick off the afternoon (San Jose-Detroit, Pittsburgh-Buffalo, St. Louis-Chicago) followed up by a national broadcast featuring the Bruins going to Minnesota to take on Dany Heatley and the Wild it’ll make for a huge day of events.

While the Wild and Bruins get the main game that afternoon, seeing new rivalries like Sharks-Wings and Penguins-Sabres sharing the day along with an old school rivalry like Blues-Blackhawks gives us the kind of warm fuzzies you need on a mid-February day. With that much hockey to be watched in a day there’s no way you can lose.

With this day being a flex schedule, there’s two potential games to make it to NBC that afternoon and either way, we’re going to wind up winners. Either we’ll be showing off Jaromir Jagr suiting up in Flyers orange at home against his first franchise and (hopefully) Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in a battle of Eastern super powers or we’ll see the new and likely improved Washington Capitals with Tomas Vokoun joining Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin against Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and the tougher Blackhawks.

While the Pens-Flyers game is sure to be oozing with drama as the teams hate each other and now have offseason heat thanks to Jagr and Maxime Talbot winding up in Philly, Caps-Hawks has enough talent out on the ice to make it look like the second All-Star Game of the year.

Making the choices easier for these two games is the fact that whichever game doesn’t end up on NBC that afternoon winds up on NBC Sports Network (currently Versus) later that night thanks to the flex scheduling arrangement.

The Blackhawks needed this game against the Red Wings, an urgency that was evident in almost every shift of this contest. Unfortunately, will power alone isn’t enough to beat one of the league’s most consistently great franchises. Ultimately, Detroit scored four goals while Chicago only managed three.

These two videos capture some of the best and worst moments for goalies Jimmy Howard and Corey Crawford. First, we have the ones they would rather not see, as NBC compiles all seven of Sunday afternoon’s goals. Howard and Crawford would be wise to scroll down to the second video, which features Net Cam video highlights.